Orion’s new planning tool helps advisors demystify the process for families they serve with clear visual asset maps to provide understanding and peace of mind

Orion, the premier provider of transformative wealthtech solutions for fiduciary advisors, today unveiled a state-of-the-art, highly visual Estate Planning tool at Orion Ascent, the firm’s flagship financial advisor event in San Diego.

This timely addition to the Orion Planning platform seeks to empower financial advisors to take a lead role in guiding families through the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. The financial landscape is set to undergo a monumental transformation as the baby boomers and the silent generation prepare to pass down an astonishing $72.6 trillion in assets to their heirs through 2045¹. As revealed in Orion’s second annual Wealthtech Survey, 57% of advisors are currently focused on generational wealth transfer as a growth opportunity, with another 36% expected to do so over the next three years.

“Orion recognizes the magnitude of the wealth transfer that lies ahead and the responsibility that financial advisors have in managing it effectively for the clients they serve,” said Natalie Wolfsen, CEO of Orion. “Our new Estate Planning tool is designed to simplify and scale this process. It enables financial advisors to expand their services, effectively offering estate planning to both high-net-worth individuals and a broader range of investors.”

The Estate Planning tool was shaped by advisor feedback and is notable for its intuitive and user-friendly interface. It is designed to significantly streamline the estate planning process and highlight critical estate planning outcomes, enhancing the experience for both advisors and clients. Key features include:

• Intuitive, Transparent Visualization: The ability to distill complex estate planning information into easy-to-understand visualizations – both as an estate planning flowchart and a comprehensive table view. This feature allows advisors and investors to clearly see who inherits which assets, and when, without the need to navigate through confusing legal documents.
• Advisor-Driven Workflow: A dedicated workflow for collecting relevant estate planning data and sharing with investors. This process aids in personalizing flowcharts that not only delineate how estate assets will be distributed but also help investors visualize their legacy in an easy-to-understand way.
• Estate Planning 'What-Ifs': The capability to model hypothetical scenarios, allowing advisors and clients to assess the impact of different estate planning strategies and decisions.
• Comprehensive Table View: An exportable table view feature is integrated to guide clients through the entire estate planning cycle, ensuring clarity and understanding at every step. Advisors and investors can isolate specific data points and outcomes for deeper insights and estate planning conversations.
• Available in Orion’s Advisor and Client Portals: Advisors and their clients can view the estate plans anytime by accessing Orion Planning through the advisor or client portals.

With the addition of the Estate Planning tool, advisors are now in a position to dedicate their time to expansion, targeting high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth investors who are likely to need these services. In fact, Orion’s recent Wealthtech Survey also showed firms with greater than $500 million in assets under management (AUM) are more inclined to center their new business endeavors on the generational wealth transfer when compared to their peer firms with fewer assets.

“This launch represents the most significant enhancement to Orion Planning since Orion’s acquisition of Advizr in 2019,” said Brian Morgan, CFP^®, Financial Planning Product Director at Orion. “We’re continually investing in and enhancing our technology. These ongoing efforts have led to the seamless integration of Orion Planning throughout Orion’s entire tech ecosystem, including Redtail CRM.”

Survey Methodology

A 10-minute online survey of financial advisors (including Orion Advisor Solutions clients and non-clients) was conducted in January 2024 by Logica Research. Sample size = 542.

About Orion

Orion is a premier provider of the tech-enabled fiduciary process that transforms the advisor-client relationship by enabling financial advisors to Prospect, Plan, Invest, and Achieve within a single, connected, technology-driven experience. Combined, our brand entities, Orion Advisor Tech, Orion Portfolio Solutions, Brinker Capital Investments, Redtail Technology, and Orion OCIO create a complete offering that empowers firms to attract new clients seamlessly, connect goals more meaningfully to investment strategies and outcomes, and ultimately track progress toward each investor’s unique definition of financial success. Orion services $4.1 trillion in assets under administration and $65.9 billion of wealth management platform assets (as of December 31, 2023) and supports over six million technology accounts and thousands of independent advisory firms. Today, 12 out of the Top 15 Barron’s RIA firms ² rely on Orion’s technology to power their businesses and win for investors. Learn more at Orion.com.

¹ Source Information:

• According to financial market intelligence firm Cerulli and Associates, baby boomers and the Silent Generation (preceding boomers) will pass down $84.4 trillion in assets through 2045, with $72.6 trillion going directly to heirs.
• The Bank Administration Institute says it will “end up as the greatest transfer of wealth in history.”
• https://finance.yahoo.com/news/great-wealth-transfer-baby-boomers-110047810.html

² Source: 2023 Top 100 RIA Firms, Barron's, 2023.

0406-OAT-2/23/2024

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